Covenant House, a 28-bed crisis facility for homeless young adults ages 18 to 22 years old, will stop operating its Safe Haven emergency shelter in July after nearly two decades of service in Orlando.
An official with the not-for-profit agency cited “budgetary challenges” for closing the shelter at 5931 E. Colonial Drive, effective July 28, in a required notice of staff layoffs to the state Department of Economic Opportunity.
Twenty-two workers will lose their jobs.
“To lose emergency shelter beds specifically for this population is devastating,” said Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, in a statement. “This has been a critically important resource for youth experiencing homelessness in our community, and the timing is particularly unfortunate.”
Homelessness among all ages is on the rise amid historic rent increases and spiking housing costs.
With rent rising in metro Orlando, homeless numbers are up, too
Covenant House Florida opened in 1983 in Fort Lauderdale “to provide hope to young people experiencing homelessness and to survivors of human trafficking,” said Reneé Trincanello, the agency’s chief executive officer, in the layoff notice.
Trincanello’s letter said Orlando employees were told May 24 of the agency’s “difficult decision.”
The Covenant House Orlando opened in 1996.
Petula Sankaringh, chief development officer for Covenant House Florida, said the charity will begin “phasing out” emergency shelter services in Orlando this month and use its resources to help youths in other ways.
“This pivot in services will allow CHF to make the most impact in the community and continue supporting youth through street outreach, supportive services and transitional housing programs,” she said.
Clients would have access to food, crisis counseling, educational assistance and other services.
The agency’s transitional housing program, known as The Rights of Passage Apartment Living Program, offers temporary housing for youth in “scatter-site” apartments in Orange and Osceola counties.
The goal is to help vulnerable youths learn to navigate life on their own and support themselves.
Jim Gress, Covenant House director in Orlando, was not available for comment Wednesday but told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview in 2016 that, before the shelter opened here, young homeless people often avoided adult shelters, sleeping instead outside downtown Orlando buildings, in the woods or under highway overpasses.
The facility was nearly always full with a four- or five-day wait for a spot.
Gress said fewer than 10 percent of Covenant House Orlando clients return to their families, which are typically struggling with poverty, addiction, abuse, mental illness or other hard-to-solve problems.
The Covenant House’s youth shelter was a critical part of the region’s safety net, offering a welcoming place for young people to get back on their feet while allowing them to stay in school, said Donna Wyche, who serves as manager of mental health and homelessness issues for Orange County government.
“The loss is tragic,” she said.
Wyche is slated to provide an update Tuesday to Orange County commissioners on efforts to fill gaps in the region’s mental and behavioral health systems, a journey that will follow what she called a “long, curvy road.”
“A lot of folks think people choose to be homeless … or they’ve made bad decisions. In some cases, that’s true,” she said. “But then there’s the other 80% who, day in and day out, are living on the street, seriously mentally ill, seriously addicted or seriously both.”
The most recent Point-in-Time Count, a federally required one-day homeless census conducted in January, found 136 people ages 18-24 without permanent shelter. Homelessness experts say Point-in-Time numbers are always an undercount, particularly for the young and homeless who generally don’t want to be identified.
In October, the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida was awarded an $8.4 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to target homelessness among youth and young adults.
Are, the network CEO, was encouraged that Covenant House would stay involved.
“Ultimately, we share the same goal — to end a cycle of poverty and homelessness for these teens and young adults and change the trajectory of their lives,” Are said.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
